This article is just a simple guide to disabling the setting that makes Internet Explorer unusable for simple tasks. With Enhanced Security enabled, you are required to add each individual site URL into the server’s list of safe sites. While this does impose a security risk if you have many users accessing the machine via Remote Desktop and using the browser, it can be easily disabled to allow the administrator to more easily navigate remote sites.

Below, are the steps one can take to disable IE Enhanced Security in Windows Server 2012.

To disable IE ESC, begin by running the Server Manager starting from either the Start Screen or the Desktop.

In the Server Manager Dashboard, click on Local Server which is found on the left side.

Then in the Server Properties for the Local Server, you should see the choice for IE Enhanced Security Configuration. Click on the blue text to the right to change the preference. This will show as either On or Off depending on the setting.

At this point, you will be given the choices to turn off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration for Administrators and/or Users. After choosing your option, click OK to close this and return to Server Manager.

This will allow you to give full access to an administrator while still restricting other created users. This can be used to test with a non-administrator user utilizing your customized safe list.

You can now click the refresh button which you can find at the top of the Server Manager or press F5 to refresh the Server Manager and you will see that it has changed to ‘Off’ which means the IE Enhanced Security Configuration must now show as ‘Off.’